(a) Technical Field
The present invention relates to an air filter for a fuel cell vehicle, more particularly, to an air filter for a fuel cell vehicle that can increase the running distance of the vehicle by increasing chemical holding capacity and dust holding capacity.
(b) Description of the Related Art
In general, in a typical structure of an air supply system of a vehicle, a silencer and an air cleaner 2 are included in the air supply system as separate individual parts, as shown in FIGS. 1-2 (RELATED ART), where the silencer functions to reduce noise that can occur during air intake and the air cleaner 2 functions to remove fine dust particles from the intake air.
Recently, significant research has been undertaken regarding fuel cell vehicles. A fuel cell is a device that converts chemical energy of fuel directly into electrical energy through a chemical reaction in the fuel cell, in which electricity is generated directly by an electrochemical reaction between hydrogen in the fuel and oxygen in the air.
Therefore, it is important for an air filter for a fuel cell vehicle to supply air into a fuel cell stack in a state in which fine dust particles and chemical contaminants such as sulfur dioxide (SO2), toluene and butane are filtered off.
Conventionally, in order to effectively filter off such contaminants, an air filter 12 made of nonwoven fabrics of a structure as shown in FIG. 3 (RELATED ART) has been mass-produced and used.
A conventional air filter 12 includes a first filtration layer 14 for primarily filtering off dust particles in the air, a gas adsorption layer 16 for holding chemical substances in the air, a second filtration layer 18 for secondarily filtering off dust particles in the air, and a cover layer 20 for additionally filtering off substances in the air and functioning to maintain a physical form of the air filter.
With the conventional air filter 12 of the above structure, since the nonwoven fabric material of the air filter 12 typically must be imported for use in making the filter, high material costs may result.
In addition, there is a problem that in a case where the air filter 12 is bent, gas holding efficiency thereof decreases while chemical holding capacity and dust holding capacity are also reduced, due to separation of carbon composing the gas adsorption (carbon) layer 16, and therefore the actual running distance of a fuel cell vehicle becomes shorter.